Lately there has been quite a flurry of edicts put out relating to the status of women in an Islamic society. And sin has prominently dominated our newspapers.
Only last week, a religious scholar here decreed that women taking the wheel of an automobile was sinful.
The argument was that by allowing women the mobility and the opportunity to intermingle with men would lead to a social breakdown of morals and ethics.
Prior to that, another scholar decreed that the participation of women in a recently held economic forum in Jeddah was just as sinful. Once again, the close proximity of women to men was raised.
It got me thinking. There are approximately 1.3 billion Muslims all over the world, with numbers rising daily. Assuming that half those numbers are women, it would place the figure to about 600 million, twice the total population of the United States of America.
And if half of these women have a driving license and are currently driving vehicles in different parts of the world, then it would indeed be an alarming statistic in line with this recent edict. For that would place approximately 300 million women in direct violation of proper moral behavior.
Does that make any sense? Are these women blatantly in defiance of what is moral and proper behavior as this scholar seems to say? Or are they unknowingly committing a sinful act? Or was perhaps the ruling not well studied and thought out?
And why have the scholars in different parts of the world not come up with similar rulings? In neighboring Muslim countries, women and men go about their daily lives and drive to and from work. From the little I know of this large piece of earth, I have not heard any alarming reports of moral decay and a breakdown of ethics in those countries where women are indeed allowed to drive.
In countries where they are permitted to do so, they go about their business wearing the Hijab while behind the wheel. And the men there respectfully mind their own business. Throughout the rest of the world of Islam, there doesn’t seem to exist the religious decline and decadence that distresses such learned scholars.
The Islam we have grown up with grants women full status and equal rights in society. And they are concrete rights. The Islam we know is a tolerant and practical religion, one of peace and compassion to all, be they men or women, Muslims or otherwise. It does not deny a woman the right to work. Nor does it forbid her to drive. It is for her to decide.
On a day when over two million men and women in close proximity are gathering on Mount Arafat to ask for God’s mercy and blessings, let us not hastily condemn 300 million women elsewhere as living in sin.
